Plan with purpose: Sustainability director Paul Young says get on board or get left behind

"A lot of focus is on the environmental side," says Paul Young, administrator of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainability. "But to get folks involved, we stress the benefits of it."

Paul A. Young, 31, the new administrator of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainability, found his direction in life by listening to his mother.

In 2003, he heard his mom, Rev. Diane Young, co-pastor at the Healing Center Full Gospel Baptist Church, talk about finding one's calling. "One thing for sure," she said, "is that God's purpose for you will never be for you. It will always be for someone else."

Young, who had recently graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a degree in electrical engineering, couldn't find a job in the slow economy. He asked himself, "What could I do that would make a good living but be for someone else, too?" Searching online, he found a city and regional planning degree program and knew that was it.

Young, a Memphis native, was appointed by Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who wants to revive Sustainable Shelby, an environmental initiative begun in 2008 by his predecessor, AC Wharton. It produced a long list of green ideas by architects, developersand environmental activists. But it has largely lain dormant.

He started work in April at the office funded by a $422,000 grant from the federal Department of Energy. Christine Donhardt, who has a master's degree in landscape architecture, works with him.

The revival is stirring excitement. John Lawrence, acting program director for Livable Memphis, a grassroots coalition, called Sustainable Shelby, "one of the most important things we could be doing now. It's a real opportunity to address not only environmental issues, but address important growth and economic issues."

Young already knows the layout at the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, which now includes his office. He worked there as a graduate assistant while enrolled in the University of Memphis' master's degree program and, after graduation, as a planner. As a graduate assistant, he helped create a long-range development plan for the Douglass neighborhood in North Memphis, where he used a contemporary approach for working with community residents.

"The old model was we were the doctors, and we tell you what's wrong. We give you a prescription," he said. "Now, they tell us what's right. Where are the assets: the parks, the strong organizations, the rainmakers of the community?" A planner helps a community build on its assets. "It absolutely works better," he said.

After a brief stint working for a nonprofit in New York, he returned home to get married. He and his wife, Jamilla Smith-Young, have a 6-week-old girl and live in Cordova near Shelby Farms Park. Oddly, perhaps, for a green advocate, he's not much of an outdoors guy. He has ridden a bike on the Greenline, he said. He plays basketball in a church gym and reads.

For three years he worked as a financial analyst for Community Capital, which consults on municipal finance and affordable housing developments. Pam Clary, vice president, called him "very laid back but exceptionally smart. Everything he did for us was top notch. I wish we could have kept him."

He made a similar impression on Kim Hackney, director of the Shelby County Office of Legislative Affairs, where he later worked as a legislative liaison. "He has great technical and communication skills, but his biggest asset is his planning and organization skills," she said. "He can pick up that plan and pick out the easy wins. We'll start seeing results immediately under his leadership."

Young called his new post "beyond exciting. Sustainability is one of those things we get on board now or get left behind."

"The strongest case for sustainability is that it's financially prudent," he said. "A lot of focus is on the environmental side. But to get folks involved, we stress the benefits of it. It's a green appeal to the green."

Among the low-hanging fruit he sees is the cost-effectiveness of putting more recycling containers Downtown. They will spur recycling at condos and apartments -- which have very little now -- as well as serve as silent ambassadors to Downtown tourists, who notice when a city cares about such things.

He wants a green building task force to revise building codes, such as requiring more attic insulation in future construction. Too many Memphians pay huge utility bills and waste energy in poorly insulated houses. It would work to make this area a leader for sustainable development and adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

He also plans a sustainability advisory committee drawn from the community to stay in touch with public concerns.

Young plans to keep residents up to date on initiatives and serve as a resource through a new website, sustainableshelby.com.

"We want a real community-based effort to put this plan together," he said. "We want to partner with community groups whenever we can."

He practices the approach he saw work in community development. "Government can spearhead," he said. "But any change comes from the people."